Subject: Historical Fiction
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A Bride of the Plains Emma Orczy
The story is set in Hungary and the scene is laid in a village close to the Maros. On this particular fourteenth of September it is Andor's turn to go unwillingly into the army for three years. On the eve preceding it, at the village merrymaking, as the whole population spends its last happy hours trying to forget... read more »
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Adam Bede George Eliot
The seemingly peaceful country village of Hayslope is the setting for this ambitious first novel by one of the nineteenth century's great novelists. With sympathy, wit, and unflinching realism, Adam Bede tells a story that would have been familiar to Eliot's first readers: the seduction of a pretty farm girl by the... read more »
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A Journal of the Plague Year Daniel Defoe
A Journal of the Plague Year is a novel by Daniel Defoe, first published in March 1722. The novel is a fictionalised account of one man's experiences of the year 1665, in which the Great Plague struck the city of London. The book is told roughly chronologically, though without sections or chapter headings. (source... read more »
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A Lost Lady Willa Cather
Marian Forrester is the symbolic flower of the Old American West. She draws her strength from that solid foundation, bringing delight and beauty to her elderly husband, to the small town of Sweet Water where they live, to the prairie land itself, and to the young narrator of her story, Neil Herbert. All are... read more »
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And How She Came to Court Ford Madox Ford
Kat Howard--intelligent, beautiful, naively outspoken, and passionately idealistic--catches the eye of Henry VIII and improbably becomes his fifth wife. A teenager who has grown up far from court, she is wholly unused to the corruption and intrigue that now surround her. It is a time of great upheaval, as... read more »
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An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge Ambrose Bierce
Peyton Farquhar, a confederate sympathizer, stands to be hanged for his role in a plot to demolish Owl Creek Bridge. As he awaits death, Farquhar considers the possibility of escape; the chances of slipping his bonds, swimming to safety, and returning to his family. An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge recounts the... read more »
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A Passage to India E. M. Forster
When Adela Quested and her elderly companion Mrs Moore arrive in the Indian town of Chandrapore, they quickly feel trapped by its insular and prejudiced 'Anglo-Indian' community. Determined to escape the parochial English enclave and explore the 'real India', they seek the guidance of the charming and mercurial Dr... read more »
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Arrowsmith Sinclair Lewis
Small-town physician, Martin Arrowsmith, is a dedicated worker whose efforts lead him to a promising career in the medical research field. A breakthrough discovery in treating the plague promises wealth and power -- but the death of his wife causes him to rethink his priorities. Arrowsmith is arguably the earliest... read more »
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A Ship of the Line C. S. Forester
May 1810, seventeen years deep into the Napoleonic Wars. Captain Horatio Hornblower is newly in command of his first ship of the line, the seventy-four-gun HMS Sutherland, which he deems 'the ugliest and least desirable two-decker in the Navy List.' Moreover, she is 250 men short of a full crew, so Hornblower must... read more »
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A Tale of Two Cities Charles Dickens
The "two cities" are Paris in the time of the French Revolution, and London. Dr. Manette, a French physician, having been called in to treat a young peasant and his sister, realizes that they have been cruelly abused by the Marquis de St. Evremonde and his brother. To ensure Dr. Manette's silence, the Marquis has... read more »
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A Town Like Alice Nevil Shute
Jean Paget is just twenty years old and working in Malaya when the Japanese invasion begins. When she is captured she joins a group of other European women and children whom the Japanese force to march for miles through the jungle - an experience that leads to the deaths of many. Due to her courageous spirit and... read more »
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Barchester Towers Anthony Trollope
Barchester Towers is the second of the six Chronicles of Barsetshire, the work in which, after a ten years' apprenticeship, Trollope finally found his distinctive voice. In this his most popular novel, the chronicler continues the story of Mr. Harding and his daughter Eleanor, begun in The Warden, adding to his cast... read more »
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Barnaby Rudge Charles Dickens
Set against the backdrop of the Gordon Riots of 1780, Barnaby Rudge is a story of mystery and suspense which begins with an unsolved double murder and goes on to involve conspiracy, blackmail, abduction and retribution. Through the course of the novel fathers and sons become opposed, apprentices plot against their... read more »
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Barry Lyndon W. M. Thackeray
Set in late 18th century Europe the adventures and mis-adventures of a minor member of the Irish gentry trying to better himself. Redmond Barry of Bally Barry is a clever young man, who learns the manners of a gentleman. This serves him well, for the next few decades he meanders through Europe, as a soldier... read more »
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Beau Brocade Emma Orczy
After their recent defeat, the hamlets and villages of Derbyshire are no longer ringing with the wild shouts of Bonny Prince Charlie's Highland Brigade; instead troops loyal to King George are looking for those accused of high treason and are offering a reward of twenty guineas for the death of any traitor or rebel... read more »
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Bellarion Rafael Sabatini
Set against a backdrop of pre-Renaissance Italy (a larger than life time, with swaggering condottieri, Machiavellian plotting, and high stakes in politics and war) convent-bred orphan Bellarion is sidetracked almost immediately upon setting out on a journey from the monastery at Cigliano to study at Pavia. The... read more »
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Ben-Hur Lew Wallace
Judah Ben-Hur lives as a rich Jewish prince and merchant in Jerusalem at the beginning of the 1st century. His old friend Messala arrives as commanding officer of the Roman legions. They become bitter enemies. Because of an unfortunate accident, Ben-Hur is sent to slave in the mines while his family is sent to... read more »
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Beric the Briton G. A. Henty
The invasion of Britain by the Roman legionaries is the setting for this story. Beric, a boy-chief of a British tribe, takes a prominent part in the insurrection against Rome under Boadicea. These efforts are useless against the might Roman army. For a short time, Beric and his companions continue the fight but are... read more »
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Biggles in the Blue W. E. Johns
Biggles is sent to Jamaica to recover a cache of secret papers -- blueprints of German secret weapons under development at the end of World War II. Their owner, Werner Wolff, had been living in Jamaica under an assumed name for many years. Unfortunately, Wolff had died without revealing where he hid his papers... read more »
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Brideshead Revisited Evelyn Waugh
Charles Ryder, a lonely student at Oxford, is captivated by the outrageous and decadent Sebastian Flyte. Invited to Brideshead, Sebastian’s magnificent family home, Charles welcomes the attentions of its eccentric, artistic inhabitants the Marchmains, becoming infatuated with them and the life of privilege they... read more »
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Caesar and Cleopatra George Bernard Shaw
Set in Egypt, Caesar and Cleopatra, is a drama in which the 50-year-old Roman general meets the childish young Queen and exerts a fatherly influence on her. read more »
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Can You Forgive Her? Anthony Trollope
With 'Can You Forgive Her?' Trollope begins his masterful series of Parliamentary novels, but here he is concerned with the politics of love and the demands of society. Alice Vavasor, lovely, intelligent and just a bit prudish, is torn between two men -- the upright if plodding John Gray, and the evasive yet... read more »
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Cardigan Robert W. Chambers
Set during the Revolutionary War in Broadalbin; the hero is the ward of Sir William Johnson. He is sent to stop an Indian war planned by Walter Buttler who wants to turn the Indians against the rebels. read more »
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Castles in the Air Emma Orczy
Mr. Hector Ratichon-onetime aide to Robespierre and confidant of Napoleon Bonaparte-is a rascal and rogue of the highest order. Nevertheless, his service to France and his resulting adventures make entertaining reading. read more »
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Catriona / David Balfour Robert Louis Stevenson
Catriona (David Balfour) is the sequel to Kidnapped, and starts at the exact moment that Robert Louis Stevenson's more famous book ends - with Balfour in Edinburgh, standing cold and remorseful outside the offices of the British Linen Company. From there begins a rollicking series of adventures which sees our... read more »
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Celebrated Crimes Alexandre Dumas
Learn about some of the most infamous criminals from around Europe in this massive compilation from one of the foremost writers of historical fiction, Alexandre Dumas. In often-chilling detail, Dumas recounts murders, heists, and all manner of malfeasance from centuries of European history. This collection of 18... read more »
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Children of the Soil Henryk Sienkiewicz
For most readers this book will have a double interest, the interest attaching to a picture of Polish life, and the general human interest inseparable from characters like those presented in the narrative of Pan Stanislavs fortunes. The Poles form a part of the great Slav race, which has played so important a role... read more »
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Chivalry Rafael Sabatini
A novel filled with living characters and the clash of swords and laid in the picturesque fifteenth century. At the age of twenty-eight, Colombino had become one of the great mercenary captains of the day, his fame spreading across the length and breadth of Italy. But, soldier of fortune though he was, living on the... read more »
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Chronicle Of The Cid Various
The heroic story of the King Arthur, or the Roland, of the Spaniards, less mythical but no less interesting. Robert Southey's "Chronicle of the Cid" is all translation from the Spanish, but is not translation from a single book. Its groundwork is that part of the Cronica General de Espana, the most ancient of the... read more »
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Clementina A. E. W. Mason
A fictionalized story of the rescue of Maria Clementina Sobieska from imprisonment so that she could wed James Francis Edward Stuart, also known as Prince James, Prince of Wales (also known as The Old Pretender or The Old Chevalier). read more »